My Grandma's fascinating anecdotes are worth sharing with all.... She's adept in telling accounts of the yesteryear traditions that they followed in their day-to-day life.....
Today, I got to hear from her, how people addressed each other in the olden days...
Point no. one, women never mentioned the name of their husbands, because they used believe that speaking out the name of their husbands may reduce the guy's lifetime
They never spoke to an outsider (read: a male other than their father or husband or uncles), and in case they were questioned by an outsider male, they'd go behind a door and let out sounds, suitable to the question, and the guy who made the query, would understand the answer from the sounds made by the women folk.
The women used to refer their husbands in the olden Tirunelveli territories by the name of the local deities because men generally were named after the deities... or else they'd refer the husbands by similar sounding tree names (for eg: mara ilai (=murunga ilai meaning drumstick leaves) for a guy named murugesan)
And in case someone inquires the woman her husband's name, she'd call a child playing near by and ask the child to speak out the husband's name... And later, this was modified as referring to the husband as the father of their children... in case, ganesh is the son, the lady would refer to the husband saying "Ganesh-Appa".. I've myself seen both instances... :)
And yes ofcourse, no youngster would speak in front of elders unless he's asked to, those days... and similarly, no man would talk to his wife, in the presence of the elders at home... This was a decorum, none dared to override...
The Sister-in-law would refer to the elder brother's wife as "Manni" even though the sister-in-law would be elder to the brother's wife.. and the brother's wife in turn would refer to the lady as "Akka"... So ultimately, even for a joke, none would call each others' names...
Similarly, the girl's parents would never dare to call the son-in-law by his name... He would always be referred to as "Maapillai" and he'd be given due respects without fail.... else there were chances that the
"Maapillai" may get displeased.... Similary when the Maapillai comes to the girl's place, the womenfolk of the household, would never sit in front of him, or even have a free chat with him.. The men of the house would talk to the son-in-law, eventually.!
There's another interesting anecdote... Those days in Kerala, if someone knocks at the door, the woman would ask "Who is it ?".. The person at the other end would say "It is me".. Now the woman would start telling a huge list of names of the people she knows and the moment she'd say the name of the person outside, the guy would say "hmmmm" and then the lady may open the door if she knows for sure, that she identifies the person outside.... And so, if anyone would say "Its me!", folks used to tease, "Don't talk like a Keralite.. how would i know who's you" :P :P
Similarly, lengthy names had general short forms... Rajalakshmi became Raji, Bhuvaneshwari became Bhuvana, Krishnamoorthy became Kicha, Ramakrishna/ Ramasubramani became Ramu, Subramanian became Subbu or Subbaani, Chandrashekar/Chandramouli became Chandru, Lalitha became Lalli...
The way Grandma potrays it, Life looked much simpler during the black and white era... and people were much closer with each other... and more on this would follow...!
Today, I got to hear from her, how people addressed each other in the olden days...
Point no. one, women never mentioned the name of their husbands, because they used believe that speaking out the name of their husbands may reduce the guy's lifetime
They never spoke to an outsider (read: a male other than their father or husband or uncles), and in case they were questioned by an outsider male, they'd go behind a door and let out sounds, suitable to the question, and the guy who made the query, would understand the answer from the sounds made by the women folk.
The women used to refer their husbands in the olden Tirunelveli territories by the name of the local deities because men generally were named after the deities... or else they'd refer the husbands by similar sounding tree names (for eg: mara ilai (=murunga ilai meaning drumstick leaves) for a guy named murugesan)
And in case someone inquires the woman her husband's name, she'd call a child playing near by and ask the child to speak out the husband's name... And later, this was modified as referring to the husband as the father of their children... in case, ganesh is the son, the lady would refer to the husband saying "Ganesh-Appa".. I've myself seen both instances... :)
And yes ofcourse, no youngster would speak in front of elders unless he's asked to, those days... and similarly, no man would talk to his wife, in the presence of the elders at home... This was a decorum, none dared to override...
The Sister-in-law would refer to the elder brother's wife as "Manni" even though the sister-in-law would be elder to the brother's wife.. and the brother's wife in turn would refer to the lady as "Akka"... So ultimately, even for a joke, none would call each others' names...
Similarly, the girl's parents would never dare to call the son-in-law by his name... He would always be referred to as "Maapillai" and he'd be given due respects without fail.... else there were chances that the
"Maapillai" may get displeased.... Similary when the Maapillai comes to the girl's place, the womenfolk of the household, would never sit in front of him, or even have a free chat with him.. The men of the house would talk to the son-in-law, eventually.!
There's another interesting anecdote... Those days in Kerala, if someone knocks at the door, the woman would ask "Who is it ?".. The person at the other end would say "It is me".. Now the woman would start telling a huge list of names of the people she knows and the moment she'd say the name of the person outside, the guy would say "hmmmm" and then the lady may open the door if she knows for sure, that she identifies the person outside.... And so, if anyone would say "Its me!", folks used to tease, "Don't talk like a Keralite.. how would i know who's you" :P :P
Similarly, lengthy names had general short forms... Rajalakshmi became Raji, Bhuvaneshwari became Bhuvana, Krishnamoorthy became Kicha, Ramakrishna/ Ramasubramani became Ramu, Subramanian became Subbu or Subbaani, Chandrashekar/Chandramouli became Chandru, Lalitha became Lalli...
The way Grandma potrays it, Life looked much simpler during the black and white era... and people were much closer with each other... and more on this would follow...!
